itu

What was that bridge-through-body years ago? Lots of metal, Hamer Cruise bass had it, 2tek?

Remember that the speaker has to be chosen after the cab: sealed construction needs different T/S parametres.

Who was the first to sing this song, "Mustang Rally"?

A headless bassist?

I have bought GHS Long Scale + sets since late 1990's. But only roundwounds. I suggest you should find some dealer and ask them.

The local dealer I have used has had singles. I have done several trials with a set of 4, and a single. Then I found the right B, .120, that worked with my MG Quantum 5 SPi.

Hopefully you can find a helping store.

https://www.ghsstrings.com/products?categories=extra-long-scale

On 16/02/2022 at 23:10, SteveXFR said:

Thanks. Seems like an excuse to buy a flanger.

Buy a X-over, too, and you can make extraordinary, or extraterrestrial sounds.

Put a battery powered preamp to the cavity. The slight increase in the tone by bypassing the high impedance circuitry will not be enough for you.

If that doesn't solve the issue, the next step is to put another pickup to the bridge position.

If money wouldn't be an object... and this has nothing to do with Emerson, Lake, or Palmer, the Japanese elpj.com would be the ultimate turntable.

There seems to be 7", 10", and 12" records, different CDs, CCs, and DATs there in the shelf. Have to take care of the equipment, too. Every recording is not available in the streaming services.

Cold and dry is OK, damp is kill.

Punch? Is it a German drink, maybe?

Mesa 400+ was so heavy in sound, that the cab became meaningless. Nearly any cab sounded good. But the weight...

EQ is the player's tool. If you are not able to tweak it, get someone, who is able. Settings at noon DO NOT MEAN FLAT. Every manufacturer decides the sound to their amps, so if you want flat, try some music from CD or similar through your rig. How does it sound? How much do you have to tweak the settings to get something out that is even close to your headphones sound?

Musescore has quite a lot of stuff in its forum, but it seems to have varying quality in its offer. Standing in the shadows... has been one of the best books lately, but you knew that already.

Rosewood fretboard!

From the material point of view the carbon neck does not need a truss rod. I have two Vigier Passions, have owned an MG Quantum SPi 5 (and currently own an MG Genesis 5), and a Status MM neck. No need to adjust. These are all super stable.

21 hours ago, Boodang said:

...it's subtle and the overwhelming difference in the sound is the overall character as the pickups, despite being single coil, are radically different in design. 

Radically different is a radical expression here. And to your previous comment, there aren't that many parameters to tweak. Plain physics.

I think there are many who want to hear a difference. Please take a look at blind testing. A fellow student - at the time - conducted two tests with speakers and amplifiers. The same speaker pair was covered with three different cloths, black, brown, and white. As the listeners could see the colours, they heard the speakers sound different. Brown was obviously the worst. Amplifiers, one model, two colours: brushed aluminium and black anodized front panel. The brushed got comments on its metallic sound, while black sounded more even... This is called psychoacoustics.

You want to hear something, you can hear it. The next trial for you is to find a pickup with horizontal magnet or magnets, and describe its parameters compared to those vertical polepiece siblings. "Compressed and round, but airy... or was this about a white wine in a red wine bottle?"

I've seen an old studio bassist have two switches in his P: on/off and tone. Simple and functional.

Once tested a very similar pair of basses in a store, a cheaper basic SB and another with these WR pickups. The latter had a better setup and sounded better - but I do not play or sound like the late Mr. Pastorius, no matter which pickups my basses would have.

Basics

A pickup is a coil-magnet component. If you do not know why are them there, it is because the magnetic string moving in the magnet field induces electrical signal (AC) in the coil around the magnet. The original coil-magnet idea is relatively old, Michael Faraday invented this system in 1831.

Some physics related details (simplified)

A coil can push more power to the output, if the coil has lots of windings. At the same time the frequency response will be reduced the more there is rounds in the coil. Less winding = wider response and weaker output.

The magnet (simplified, again)

A magnet affects the output the same way as the coil: the stronger it is, the stronger is the output. The distance to the coil and strings is very important, as the power of the magnetic field weakens really quickly. Even fractions of millimeters can affect the output. The materials are many, and if something is to be remembered, the magnetic material tells us only, that it is some named material. The "power" of the magnet can be nearly anything from zero to its maximum possible. If bigger amounts of magnets are sourced, you can choose the "power" level. Because of this, the name does not tell the exact "power". It only tells about the materials there are. Neodymium can be weaker than a AlNiCo, if they are magnetized to different "powers".

(disclaimer: I use the word "power" here only in a descriptive way. I want this to be easy reading in stead of raw physics.)

Pickup frame

The frame is the support for the coil and the magnets. As the distances and shapes affect the output and response, the plastic frame is designed to support the named parts. Plastic material itself has no effect on sound, only the shape may have a bit. Most likely the difference in shape is inaudible.

Wired, like Jeff Beck

The wire has to be tiny - like the signal is - so that the manufacturer can put enough of it to a small pickup. To get enough of signal from the pickup, we have two choices: high impedance (hi-Z) with lots of wire, or a buffered low impedance (lo-Z) output (like EMG) with somewhat less. There has been many, many trials on different types of winding types, wires, shapes etc. but there is no holy grail. Sorry, now I have said it.

Production

Hand winding can be a good choice if the production is small. If the production is modern, efficient, and the products have to be equal in quality, machinery is a viable option. But again, neither is superior. Just different.

Sensation

You want to hear a difference? You hear it. Make it a blind ABX test in controlled surroundings, you probably can not repeat your findings. A J/P/MM/humbucker/else has a comparable sound if the electronics after the pickup are constant. Of course there are overwound, as well as lo-Z options, and by their nature, they are different.

Conclusion

Pickup is important part of the sound, whether it is a basic coil-magnet, piezo, optical, acceleration sensor, or anything. One part of the sound is also coming from strings. Different pickups make it possible to use different types: nylon strings on a bass, and a coil-magnet is not a feasible solution. Piezo on the other hand...

Magnet "power" and coil winding are the main parametres, but there are few details that can be tweaked with certain choices. As it has been said here several times, we lack good terms in describing qualitative details of the sound. My good may be your good, or not. This is really an issue, we do not have a decent solution available. Discussion continues.

A local class played The final countdown with recorders. Every time I hear that song, I hear the recorders.

If you use a break-before-make switch, the 1 M may stop the clicks. But yes, that override switch with the battery powered section needs a resistor or it should only be used while the cable is disconnected.

By the way, the Noll Mixpot did make a substantial difference in sound.

The straps are handmade and similar, the picture shows both sides.

This is one of the few step attenuators I have made. No clicks. It is make-before-break.

If you know the phasing of the pickups, you can use this basic bass signal chain:

pickups - blend - vol - tone stack - output

You can use a coil tap switch before the blend if there are 4 wires in the MM. If you need a new blend, use a hi-Z Bourns 250k MN or a lo-Z Noll Mixpot (which is slightly complicated to solder).

As you can see, the mixing is done before vol, so you need one wire going to the preamp (which is practically the tone stack) from the vol pot.

Check that all ground wires are well soldered in their respective places (pot covers, ground contacts...) before the first trial.

Make-before-break is sure one option that helps. It is also possible to use a 1 M resistor to ground. I had a preamp override in my Modulus, and the pop was negligible with that 1 M.

By the way, Kubicki had a five position switch with stdby after off. That way the output did not crackle.